The Blick studio wood panels look
pretty nice. They look pricey up in the range of larger small
layouts, especially with HO sized panels that may require
expensive
shipping. For those of us who have decent size work spaces at home
and necessary tools for building with wood materials such expenses
look unnecessary. But for apartment dwellers the story may be
different. Next time I'm in town near the big art supply store I'm
going to inquire about the Blick panels and if they can be shipped
there. I'll say one thing for this approach. I'd be hard pressed
to
duplicate their panels in the kind of accuracy we need in modular
setups. And in the West it's especially hard to find good flat
thin
plywood like the 4mm stuff Blick offers in their panels.
I've been studying the DIY approach
the
last few days and I'm learning some interesting things so far
about
building light in weight. I went into Lowes and found the
Polyisocyuranate insulation sheets. All they had that was
undamaged
was1/2" and 1" thick 4x8 sheets. I picked up two together
from vertical storage on a4 foot high store shelf, about 13 lbs,
and
was able to lift them off and on easily. Two thin sheets glued
together with some construction adhesive to double the beam
stiffness
have one advantage over a single 2" thick sheet. You can easily
cut out one inch deep sections of the upper sheet for water
features
and turntable pits and still retain most of the vertical beam
stiffness in a wide layout section.
For my 4 ft x 6 ft layout plan on the
lightweight layout piece of the project some
additional bracing underneath will be needed. I'm thinking 1 or
1-1/4 high strips of douglas fir or western cedar (lighter weight
than the fir) and recessed 1/8 thick door skin panels held on with
velcro patches. This will cover under layout wiring and switch
machines.
I got to thinking more of Western
cedar
for light structural use because it is the lightest wood we have
around here besides balsa and I have a huge pile of cedar grape
stakes from an old fence.
I'm no great wood worker but do have
some decent wood working tools including a 14" delta band saw
and a small Mitutoyo wood planer. So the idea of turning those
light
dry cedar stakes into layout structural wood as well as roadbed is
appealing. BTW, I sawed out some 1/4 " thick cedar (roadbed
thickness) and pushing spikes into it was pure joy. I'll have to
do
some weigh tests and calculations, but I can see a possibility of
saving a couple of pounds in the final layout weight versus the
use
of cork roadbed. Noise transmission remains a question. The old
standard for quiet road bed, Homosote, is too heavy for this
project
with a 35 lb objective; but it remains the standard for quiet
operation.
I tried uploading an image of the 40
year old 4x6 "heavy half" before it's crash diet.? Couldn't get it
to work.? Will keep trying.?? Last few days that part has been
hoisted back up to make room for some workshop house keeping.?
Ed Weldon
